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Infrastructure, Energy, Arms and the State of the Union

Last night, President Obama delivered his first official State of the Union address to Congress and the nation. Sure, the speech focused on big issues that Popular Mechanics tends not to cover: big bank bailouts, healthcare policy and strife up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. And while Obama didn't mention the state of the auto industry, NASA or weatherized homes, there was plenty of science and technology sprinkled throughout the address, including an emphasis on job creation in infrastructure and clean energy as well as how to halt nuclear proliferation. Here are some highlights, in the president's own words.

High-Speed Rail

The day following the State of the Union speech, Obama traveled to Tampa, Fla., to check in on the nation's latest, biggest high-speed-rail project, which he name-checked in his speech. "Workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act," Obama said. From this $787 billion legislation, $8 billion was allocated in April for building a high-speed-rail system in the United States.

Recipients of the money were announced the day after the State of the Union, including "$1.25 billion to develop a high-speed rail corridor between Tampa and Orlando with trains running up to 168 miles per hour," Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said in his blog, "and California, with $2.25 billion to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco and points in between with trains running up to 220 miles per hour."

"[W]e can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow," Obama said last night. "From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean-energy products."

Clean Energy

The president said the stimulus bill has saved or created 200,000 jobs in the construction and clean-energy sectors, but that more are needed. "[T]hat means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country," Obama said, to uproarious applause.

"Tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development," Obama said, to more applause. The Republican response to the State of the Union, delivered by newly sworn-in governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell, echoed these remarks: "Advances in technology can unleash more natural gas, nuclear, wind, coal and alternative energy to lower your utility bills. Here in Virginia, we have the opportunity to be the first state on the East Coast to explore for and produce oil and natural gas offshore."

Obama also endorsed biofuels and clean-coal technology before declaring support for "passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America." McDonnell later said a climate bill would impose "job-killing cap and trade energy taxes."

Obama noted the contrasting world views: "I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But here's the thing--even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future--because the nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation."

Nuclear Arms

Another area that Obama wants the United States to lead in is nuclear disarmament. "Now, even as we prosecute two wars, we're also confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people; the threat of nuclear weapons," he said. "I've embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of these weapons and seeks a world without them. To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms-control treaty in nearly two decades," Obama said. "And at April's Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring 44 nations together here in Washington, D.C., behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists."

Following his talk on nuclear arms, Obama stressed a multilateral approach to solving problems that face the world. "As we have for over 60 years, America takes these actions because our destiny is connected to those beyond our shores. But we also do it because it is right. That's why, as we meet here tonight, over 10,000 Americans are working with many nations to help the people of Haiti recover and rebuild."

The earthquake disaster in Haiti served as a coda to the speech in symbolizing American's spirit. "[I]t lives on in all the Americans who've dropped everything to go someplace they've never been and pull people they've never known from the rubble, prompting chants of `U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A!' when another life was saved."

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